All entries by this author

Danny Postel on Reading Habermas in Tehran *

Aug 1st, 2008 | Filed by

The speeches and writings of Akbar Ganji, Iran’s leading dissident, are peppered with references to Kant and Mill.… Read the rest



Online Persecution *

Aug 1st, 2008 | Filed by

Anonymous bullies amuse themselves by tormenting strangers.… Read the rest



Teach the children well

Aug 1st, 2008 1:14 am | By

Did you have a look at the report on Saudi textbooks? It’s horrible, horrible stuff. It’s sickening to read. You feel despair that there are people in the world going about things in this way, ‘teaching’ children in this way. You feel disgusted with human beings.

A 2005-2006 Fourth Grade textbook on Monotheism and Jurisprudence instructs students to “hate (tubghida) the polytheists and the infidels” as a requirement of “true faith.” Incongruously, the same sentence instructs that they are not to treat the infidels “unjustly,” but does not provide any clarification of what this meant.

“ Is belief true in the following instances?

a. A man prays but hates those who are virtuous.
b. A man professes

Read the rest


David Littman on Human Rights and Sharia *

Jul 31st, 2008 | Filed by

We must insist that “jihad” is jihad, “sharia” is sharia, a “slave” is a slave, “genocide” is genocide. … Read the rest



The Papacy: Authority and Obedience *

Jul 31st, 2008 | Filed by

Not one woman was represented among the American Cardinals who greeted him, Paul Kurtz notes.… Read the rest



No Escorting of Cats in Public in Riyadh *

Jul 31st, 2008 | Filed by

Religious cops began enforcing a ban on the sale and escorting of cats and dogs in public places.… Read the rest



Ban on Sale of Cats and Dogs in Riyadh *

Jul 31st, 2008 | Filed by

‘Will we wake tomorrow to the news that young men are no longer allowed to drive?’ … Read the rest



Danish Muslim Groups Appeal to Supreme Court *

Jul 31st, 2008 | Filed by

Claim Muslims were slandered by cartoons. Will appeal to European HR Court next. Then Cosmic Court.… Read the rest



Pakistan: Taliban Sends Threats *

Jul 31st, 2008 | Filed by

Every woman not wearing hijab would get acid in the face.… Read the rest



The Catholic constitution

Jul 30th, 2008 12:04 pm | By

‘The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy’ attempts to throw its weight around.

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy (a national association of 600 priests & deacons) respond to the sacrilegious and blasphemous desecration of the Holy Eucharist by asking for public reparation…We find the actions of University of Minnesota (Morris) Professor Paul Myers reprehensible, inexcusable, and unconstitutional. His flagrant display of irreverence by profaning a consecrated Host from a Catholic church goes beyond the limit of academic freedom and free speech.

Unconstitutional? How’s that?

The same Bill of Rights which protect freedom of speech also protect freedom of religion. The Founding Fathers did not envision a freedom FROM religion, rather a freedom OF religion.

Clever; we’ve never heard that before. But … Read the rest



Nesrine Malik on Why Muslim Women Stay *

Jul 30th, 2008 | Filed by

The pull of the eternal deep-rooted institution is omnipresent – be it religion, nationality, race or class. … Read the rest



AC Grayling on the Ambitions of Religion *

Jul 30th, 2008 | Filed by

Believers are tireless and persistent in their efforts to recapture the world for dogma.… Read the rest



Terry Sanderson: Faith is not the Answer *

Jul 30th, 2008 | Filed by

There are ways to be philanthropic that don’t involve taking orders from priests… Read the rest



Clergy Group Fails Free Speech 101 *

Jul 30th, 2008 | Filed by

‘Attacking the most sacred elements of a religion is not free speech anymore than would be perjury in a court.’… Read the rest



The Dumbing Down of Science *

Jul 30th, 2008 | Filed by

The Franklin Institute seems as scared of learning as it does of science.… Read the rest



Calls to Kill in the name of God or Religion

Jul 30th, 2008 | By IHEU and AWE

Joint written statement submitted at the Sixty-second session of the UN Commission on Human Rights by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), and the Association for World Education, and the Association of World Citizens, February 28, 2006.

1. The legitimacy of the use of violence and acts of terrorism in the name of Islam is
the subject of continuing debate within the Islamic world. The debate, which is clearly
divisive, turns on interpretations of the concept of Jihad when carried out as “Holy War.”

2. It is significant that persons close to those who carried out the London bombings on
7 July 2005 and the earlier attacks in Madrid, as well as other terror attacks, claimed that
they did … Read the rest



No dogs or atheists allowed

Jul 29th, 2008 3:34 pm | By

Moving on, from the sadistic to the ridiculous – Birmingham Council won’t let its staff read atheist websites. (So can Birmingham Council staffers read B&W? I wonder. I know B&W is banned in Iran [yes, I am proud of that, and so would you be, so quit staring] so perhaps its Bluecoat Software can detect heterodoxy just as well as Iran can. I’d love to know.)

The rules also ban sites that promote witchcraft, the paranormal, sexual deviancy and criminal activity…The authority’s Bluecoat Software computer system allows staff to look at websites relating to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and other religions but blocks sites to do with “witchcraft or Satanism” and “occult practices, atheistic views, voodoo rituals or any other

Read the rest


Take a cold shower

Jul 29th, 2008 3:14 pm | By

Next up we have an Archbishop in the Philippines saying why contraception is such a bad terrible wicked thing.

Archbishop Lagdameo argued the bill would not solve the problems of population growth but would only undermine the dignity of marriage and endanger women. He said that artificial contraceptives cause physical and psychological harm to women.

Whereas having children that they don’t want to have causes no physical and psychological harm to women at all, good heavens no. Women are invariably better off if they are forced to produce as many children as they can churn out, no matter how poor they are, no matter how much they might prefer to have one child or two children that they could … Read the rest



Constitutional pharmacology

Jul 29th, 2008 2:52 pm | By

More bullshit from the Catholic News Agency.

Colorado for Equal Rights, an organization backing a measure on the Colorado ballot that would define a person in the state’s Constitution as “any human being from the moment of fertilization,” has released a list of over 70 physicians and pharmacists from around the United States who agree that a person includes any human from the moment of conception.

‘Any human being from the moment of fertilization’…That’s an interesting idea: a microscopic fertilized egg is a human being and a person, even though of course…it isn’t. Let’s define everything that way. A daffodil bulb is a daffodil. A swallow’s egg is a swallow. A caterpillar is a butterfly. A truckload of boards … Read the rest



187 Executions in Iran So Far This Year *

Jul 29th, 2008 | Filed by

Amnesty International is appalled by the mass execution of 29 men in Evin Prison on 27 July.… Read the rest